DAVAO CITY (MindaNews / 04 August 2026) – The Bangsamoro peace process is back on track with the Peace Implementing Panels of the government (GPH) and Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) signing on Tuesday a “Declaration of Continuity of the Partnership” between them in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB), the peace agreement they signed on March 27, 2014, directing the peace process mechanisms to “resume their joint operations and continue to perform their functions.”
The panels also agreed in a joint statement signed at the end of the 2.5 hour-meeting at the ballroom of the Acacia Hotel here, to conduct a “special meeting” in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, “tentatively scheduled on 25 September 2026” where the Technical Working Group on the Roadmap Development for the Implementation of the CAB has been directed to “prepare the presentation of its Terms and Reference (TOR) to the Panels during the Special Meeting.” Malaysia hosted and facilitated the peace negotiations from 2001 to 2014 and continues to play a role in the peace process until the signing of the Exit Agreement when all provisions of the CAB shall have been fully implemented.
MILF Peace Implementing Panel (PIP) chair Mohagher Iqbal told MindaNews after the meeting that Tuesday also marked the lifting of MILF chair Al Haj Murad Ebrahim’s declaration in mid-March this year, of a “temporary pause” in their engagements in the Bangsamoro peace process until a “full-fledged chairman” of the GPH peace implementing panel (PIP) is named.
In April, President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. appointed Mel Senen Sarmiento as Presidential Adviser on Peace, Reconciliation and Unity vice Carlito Galvez who was Presidential Peace Adviser from December 2018 until April 2026 with a break from January to June 2023 when he served as OIC Defense Secretary.
Sarmiento was named on a concurrent capacity, as chair of the GPH PIP, on July 15.
Declaration of Continuity
The two-page “Declaration of Continuity of the Partnership Between the Government of the Philippines (GPH) and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) in the implementation of the Comprehensive Agreement on the Bangsamoro (CAB)” was signed by the two PIP chairs in the presence of Tan Sri Dato’ Seri Panglima Ts Haji Zulkifli bin Zainal Abidin, who is described as the Malaysian “Third Party Facilitator and/or Special Adviser.”
Also present were the panel members from both sides, members of the International Contact Group and members of the Third Party Monitoring Team (TPMT) led by Heino Marius of Brussels, who, in a statement after the meeting, welcomed what he described as “fresh commitment today by both Parties to the primacy of the peace architecture led by the Panels as expressed in the Declaration of Continuity.”
“We were encouraged by the spirit of trust and effective cooperation that was demonstrated by Chairs Sarmiento and Iqbal, and the respective Panel members,” he said.
The 2.5 hour meeting that started at 2:30 p.m, was the 38th since the PIPs were established in 2016. It was the first meeting since December 19, 2025 and was held on August 4, a historic date in the Bangsamoro peace process. On August 4, 2008, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order that barred the government peace panel chair from signing the already initialed GPH-MILF Memorandum of Agreement on Ancestral Domain, and on August 4, 2011, then President Benigno Simeon Aquino III and key Cabinet members, flew to Narita, Japan to talk peace with MILF chair Murad and his Central Committee, to “fast-track” the peace process.
The August 4, 2026 meeting was held behind closed doors. A paper posted on the door warned that what was going on inside was a “Restricted Meeting | Confidential | and Authorized participants only.”
Before it started, representatives of civil society staged a picket across the street from the hotel while others waited outside the meeting venue to give roses to the panel members and to “harana” (serenade) them. In both, the participants encouraged the Peace Implementing Panels to move forward in the implementation of the CAB.
Substantial gains, commitments to be completed
In their “Declaration of Continuity,” the GPH and MILF PIPs acknowledged the substantial gains achieved in the implementation of the CAB 12 years after its signing; that important commitments “remain to be completed,” and that these “shall continue to be pursued jointly in a parallel and commensurate manner, and in accordance with the CAB and its established implementation arrangements.”
They also vowed to continue “strong coordination and implementation processes necessary to complete the commitments under the CAB” and that they would, through the PIPs and the jointly established mechanisms, “seek to agree on mutually determined priorities for its implementation” and direct the peace process mechanisms to “resume their joint operations and continue to perform their functions.”
The two panels continue to “seek the goodwill among our leaders, as well as the support of all stakeholders, in the implementation of the CAB for all to reap the fruits of the social, economic, security, and political reforms and measures stipulated in the agreement.”
Peace process mechanisms
They also reaffirmed the peace process mechanisms and their roles in “fully implementing the CAB and in helping secure positive peace.”
They listed 13 mechanisms although added they are not limited to these: Third Party Facilitator and/or Special Adviser (Malaysia); International Contact Group (ICG), Third Party Monitoring Team (TPMT), Coordinating Committee on the Cessation of Hostilities (CCCH), Ad Hoc Joint Action Group (AHJAG); Joint Normalization Committee (JNC), including the Joint Peace and Security Committee (JPSC) and the Joint Peace and Security Teams (JPSTs); Independent Decommissioning Body (IDB), Task Force for Decommissioned Combatants and their Communities (TFDCC), Joint Task Forces on Camps Transformation (JTFCT), Technical Working Group on Transitional Justice and Reconciliation (TWGTJR), Bangsamoro Normalization Trust Fund (BNTF), Joint Communications Committee (JCC) and International Monitoring Team (IMT), “subject to further Panels’ discussion.”
The two parties reaffirmed that with the first regular Bangsamoro Parliamentary Elections on September 14 and the anticipated establishment of the regular Bangsamoro Government to fulfill the political track by October 30, the implementation of the CAB “shall continue and ensure that these mechanisms perform their essential functions.”
The two panels reaffirmed their “faith in the peace process” and renewed their pledge to continue “working jointly, in good faith and with mutual respect, toward just and lasting peace for the Bangsamoro and the entire Filipino nation.”
“We note as positive the continued commitment by both Parties to the implementation of the CAB,” TPMT’s Marius said. It added that the TPMT “stands ready to continue our monitoring assignment which began in 2013, and work closely with both Parties in the continued implementation of the CAB for the benefit of the Bangsamoro and the Philippines.”
Iqbal told MindaNews he is “happy” that they met “but with guarded optimism.”
Asked if the MILF’s July 2025 suspension of its engagement in the decommissioning process has been lifted as well, he replied: “decom suspension is still not lifted to allow other deliverables to catch up… Other aspects of CAB implementation to proceed.”
The MILF suspended in July last year its engagement in the decommissioning of combatants and weapons until there is “substantial compliance” by the national government in the other tracks of normalization, such as the provision of socio-economic packages of the 26,145 decommissioned combatants.
Chairs speak
In his opening statement, Sarmiento, on his 19th day as GPH PIP chair, said the durability of the CAB “will not be measured simply by the passage of time. It will be measured by whether our institutions continue to function, whether our mechanisms continue to resolve problems, whether the trust and partnership we have built continue to grow stronger, and whether our communities continue to experience the real and lasting benefits of peace despite political transitions and implementation challenges.”
Sarmiento assured that the Philippine government “comes to this table not only ready to work, but committed to walking this journey with you — as partners.”
“We are not here to revisit what we have already settled. We are here to fulfill what we have promised, strengthen what we have built together, and ensure that this Agreement continues to bring hope, opportunity, and a better future for every Bangsamoro community,” he said.
In his opening statement, Iqbal, who chaired the MILF peace negotiating panel from 2003 to 2014 and the MILF PIP from 2016, said the panels are meeting again “not to reopen what we settled, but to resume the work we signed up for.”
The CAB, he said, is a binding agreement meant to be implemented in full. “Peace in the Bangsamoro does not come from documents, ceremonies or from elections held while the harder parts of the settlement are left undone. Peace comes from doing what we agreed: decommission arms, dismantle private armed groups, develop the camps, deliver transitional justice, and build institutions that outlast any administration,” he said.
He described the meeting as a “resumption of obligation.” He welcomed Sarmiento’s appointment as GPH PIP chair and takes it as a sign of serious engagement. “But the test is whether Filipino and Bangsamoro partners under the CAB, not adversaries across it – can agree on next steps and carry them out together. That is how wars end: both parties keeping their word, step by step, until the next generation inherits something better than the conflict we came from.”
In his closing statement, Sarmiento expressed hope that Tuesday’s meeting marks the “beginning of even more productive and meaningful engagements in the days ahead.”
He recalled that when he concluded his term as chair of the Galing Pook Foundation, he reflected on the years he spent mentoring, coaching, and journeying with their partner local government units across the BARMM and Sulu, and remembered seeing the sadness on their faces when he told them his term was ending. He assured them not to worry because even if his term will end, “our relationship will continue because you are now part of my family.”
“Today, I make the same commitment to all of you. We will continue this journey together until we build a Bangsamoro that every Filipino can proudly present to the world—a region where every Bangsamoro, every Indigenous Person, and every resident enjoys peace, dignity, opportunity, and a quality of life worthy of their aspirations,” Sarmiento said.
No copy of Iqbal’s closing statement was made available but Iqbal told MindaNews that the essence of what he said was putting closure to the Bangsamoro problem is a national interest as well as Bangsamoro interest.
He said Murad used to tell President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. that his father started the peace talks in the 1970s and it should be fitting that the son-President put closure to the problem now. (Carolyn O. Arguillas / MindaNews)
